Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Bitter Medicine!
Lissa Smith’s 3yo toddler had been mauled on the face by a dog in their hometown of Stone Mountain GA.
The doctors treated him successfully but then he developed an infection bigger than a tennis ball that swelled his eye shut.
The 3yo had to take oral antibiotics to save his eye.
And he hated it!
He’d gag and spit it up… and his father would gather it back up until he’d taken what they hoped was the full amount.
They persisted for 10 days… and finally the wound healed and his eye was saved.
According to webmd.com
medicines generally taste very unpleasant.
They usually don’t try to make them unpleasant.
Active ingredients in many medicines are usually very bitter or unbearably salty.
But even when they aren’t, the ingredients used to make the mixture stable enough to have a decent shelf life can be very distasteful!
And on the odd occasion when researchers have made pleasant medicines… some people, especially children can overdose on them.
This Good Friday we come again to a most distasteful day in human history.
The day when the Son of God was sentenced to die… as a relatively young man.
The death of Jesus was certainly tragic.
But was it really necessary?
And honestly… was it really necessary for me… and for you?
Because sometimes as I listen to people they think that it wasn’t.
Oh, they would never say as much… but so often, ask people if they think God will accept them into heaven… and the answer is, “I think so.
I’ve lived a good life!”
You Must be Born Again!
Jesus must be lifted up!
Early in Jesus’ ministry he was visited by a man who didn’t think he needed any medicine.
Jesus’ reputation was evidently growing and Nicodemus, a wealthy, educated… (man!) from the ruling council of the nation of God’s own people wanted to check out this young Rabbi who’s causing such a stir.
He approaches Jesus with a “We know… “ v2
We know God is with you.
(Makes us wonder if perhaps Nicodemus may have gone on to offer Jesus some advice....
You’re doing OK out in the back blocks around Nazareth by yourself.
But here in Jerusalem you might need some help.
Perhaps we could help you navigate your way…)
Jesus doesn’t “beat around the bush”.
Jn 3:3 ““I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.””
In effect Jesus says to Nicodemus: “No matter how good you are wealthy, respectable, ruling council man… you cannot see the KOG unless you are born again."
Nicodemus thinks that’s the stupidest thing he’s ever heard.
A man… go back into the womb?
You’ve got to be kidding.
But Jesus is insistent… “you MUST be born again”.
“How can this be?”
Nicodemus replies, v9
You are Israel’s teacher and you do not understand these things?
There are now two “musts” we have come across here.
Jesus told Nicodemus that he “must” be born again
And now Jesus says he “must” be lifted up…
People today probably struggle to know what Jesus is referring to… but Nicodemus would have clicked immediately.
Jesus is referring to an incident in Israel’s history… one of many incidents where God’s medicine for Israel’s complaint tasted nasty indeed.
Num 21:4-9
Israel’s Sin
We pick up the story long after Israel has left Egypt.
Israel has been wandering in the desert… for the best part of 40 years.
They are impatient to enter the land flowing with milk and honey.
Num 21:5 “5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert?
There is no bread!
There is no water!
And we detest this miserable food!””
What’s this miserable food?
Well decades ago the parents of these people had no food in the desert so God said he would give them food from heaven.
And 7 days a week 52 weeks a year… for over 30 years God had fed his people with bread from heaven.
It was called manna.
We read about it in
Num 11:7-9 “7 The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin.
8 The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a handmill or crushed it in a mortar.
They cooked it in a pot or made it into cakes.
And it tasted like something made with olive oil.
9 When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.”
It was what God had graciously given them every night for over 30 years.
It was their lifeblood, their sustenance in the desert.
The people calling the bread God gave them from heaven every morning Sunday to Friday they called detestable!
So God gives them a taste of what is really detestable… and it is a bitter medicine indeed!
God’s people call his bread from heaven detestable?
God will give them a taste of detestable…
Venomous snakes slither into the camp among them and many Israelites are bitten and died.
Snakes… it is not without exception but the majority of people in every society in every age detest snakes.
They slither silently along the ground, forked tongue going in and out, in and out.
Then they either sit up and stare at you with lidless eyes or they strike so fast and without warning.
When I was growing up we often saw red belly black snakes in summer.
Dad used to always say… leave them alone.
They won’t hurt you.
But he also told the story of someone who had been bitten on the finger by a snake… and he was so petrified of the venom he pulled out his shotgun and shot the end off his finger!
They are indeed detestable creatures to most people.
It’s the stuff of horror movies
How could they?
What were they thinking?
Calling manna from heaven detestable!
But the snakes did the trick.
Israel said sorry to God.
Num 21:7 “7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you.
Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people.”
Amazing!
But God didn’t make the snakes slither off into the desert.
God didn’t change their venom into water.
The snakes stayed for a time and continued to bite people.
But God told Moses to do something very strange.
They have called the bread from heaven detestable.
Their judgement was something truly detestable… snakes slithering under and behind everything in camp… killing everyone that was bitten.
So now they get a symbol of their detestable judgement… that is the best medicine they will ever receive.
Look at how it worked.
When anyone… anyone… was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake… he (she) lived!
Can you see how it works?
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